LAW ENFORCEMENT MANAGEMENT INSTITUTE A CASE STUDY OF FOUR SERIAL MURDERERS TO PROFILE THEIR HISTORICAL BACKGROUND, CRIMES, MD METHODS OF OPERATION FOR LAW ENFORCEMENT AND PUBLIC INFORMATION A LEARNING CONTRACT SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR MODULE II BY DENNIS ~HITE JEFFERSON COUNTY SHERIFF'S DEPARTMENT BEAUMONT, TEXAS AUGUST, 199 a *~i~ TABLE OF CONTENTS In trod u c t ion. 1 Statement of the Problem .......................... 5 Case study I Randy Woodf ield .............................. 7 Case Study II John Wayne Gacy 10 Case study III Ted Bundy 13 Case study IV Christopher Wilder 16 Future Implementations for Law Enforcement Management and Administration 21 General Assumptions for the Law Enforcement Manager in Dealing with the Serial Killer 22 Management Considerations in Conducting A Serial Murder Investigation 25 E.nd Notes 27 (1) INTRODUCTION Violent crime in the United states grows each year. In 1987, 20,096 persons were killed, in 1988, 20,675. Thirty- three percent of the victims were unknown to the murderers. Not only is this trend on the increase, but a new type of criminal class is emerging, a serial murderer. In 1983 alone, according to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), approximately five thousand Americans of both sexes and all ages- fifteen people a day and fully twenty-five percent of all murder victims were struck down by murderers who did not know their victims. Some killed them for the sheer "high" of the experience. The FBI calls this class of homicides serial murders and their perpetrators recreational or lust killers. They are described as the most cunning and sinister of all violent people.1 First, let's consider the difference between serial killers and mass murderers. Serial killers kill in a series of acts, slaying their victims on different occasions. They are accomplished killers and are present in everyday society with an air of normal acceptable behavior. They strike without warning in an episodic frenzy by carrying out their crimes not by a passion of the moment, but by compelling urges to kill and then to kill again. They connect their crimes by subsequent victims at their own wills and pleasure, and then lead a near normal life in (2 ) society until the next convenient stranger crosses thieir paths. Examples of serial killers include Randy Woodfield, John Wayne Gacy, Ted Bundy, Christopher Wilder, Richard Ramirez, Wayne Williams, Juan Corona, Henry Lee Lucas and Dean Corill. Mass murderers, on the other hand, are simultaneous killers; those who murder their victims at the same time or in one episode.2 They will slaughter their victims in one enormous attack. Their characteristics include multiple killings with suddenness, ferocity and extensive overkill. Mass murderers have more psychotic neurological symptoms than serial killers and are almost always caugl,1t. Some examples include James Huberty, Richard Speck and Charles Witman. Almost impossible to capture, diagnose, or predict using ordinary investigative methods, and perversely attracted to the police who are pursuing them, serial killers dance - just beyond their pursuer's reach from state to state, retreating into the background, than spring up again in a different part of the country to begin another series of seemingly motiveless killings.3 (3 ) The emergence of the serial murderer in today's society is different from murder in the past. In traditional cases, law enforcement seeks motives, intent, a traceable relationship between victim and murderer, anger, passion, or crimes committed for theft or robbery. The motives are clear and develop within the span of the criminal investigation. Serial murderers are entirely different criminals. They are practiced, accomplished, and can exist in society as a normal functioning individual with acceptable behavior. Even the newly emerged serial murderers have been fantasizing for years about committing crimes.4 The victim may be missing for a long period of time before the crime is discovered, and multiple crimes may be spread over an entire region or even across the United States. This, in itself, will pose a tremendous manpower and jurisdictional problem for police investigations. Also, with this expanding crime form, management must be redefined for both crime scene, investigative, evidence processing and prosecution roles. Cases in point include Ted Bundy, Richard Ramirez, John Wayne Gacy, Angelo Buna, Henry Lee Lucas, otis Toole, Dean Corll, Elmer Wayne Henry, and Kenneth Bianchi. Investigating some of these cases may take years. In some (4) instances, the cases are almost unsolvable, an example being the "Green River Killer" in Seattle, Washington suspected to have killed more than fifty-two women since the 1970's. This type of criminal is addicted to murder. They silently "troll" for their victims amid shopping malls, neighborhoods, city streets, county roads, or isolated rural communities. The serial killer will seek out, locate, corner, and trap his prey. He does not only commit the extreme act of homicide, but takes pleasure in terrorizing, tormenting, and torturing his victims until the end. Each crime is planned, well organized, and calculated for the most intense pleasure for the killer which includes eluding from the police. The serial murderer may also strike over a period of days, weeks, or years even in one place a case in point being John Wayne Gacy.5 Serial murder is different from any other type of crime. Law enforcement managers must recognize that traditional approaches to homicide investigation, limited resources, and jurisdictional boundaries, coupled with the very nature of the serial killer, will leave them several steps behind , ' ' ' 6 ln the lnves t19a tlone ( 5 ) STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM Since 1960, not only have the number of individual serial killers increased, but so have the number of victims per killer and the level of savagery of the individual crimes themselves. Of the 160 serial killers who have been captured or singled out by law enforcement authorities over this period, at least 120 were found in the United 6 States. The hard truth is that serial killers are extremely skillful killers. They are unrestrained by either conscience or the law and they may slay dozens of human beings before their luck runs out and they commit a fatal 7 blunder. The average law enforcement agency would find it quite difficult, if not impossible to investigate and bring to justice a killer of this type. Some time may pass before investigators realize that a series of seemingly unrelated homicides is actually the work of a single indiv~dual.8 Normal practices, including current medical and psychiatric diagnosis may be ineffective in determining responsibility in these cases.9 Law enforcement managers must plan to allocate extensive manpower, equipment, time and financial resources to solve a serial murder in their jurisdiction. Agencies involved in serial murder cases must form multijurisdictional task (6 ) forces and cooperate, coordinate, and communicate to solve each case. When a serial crime is recognized within a jurisdiction, a proactive, managed investigation must be set in motion. Failure to recognize and implement these and other new management strategies will lead to more victims and less containment of this growing societal problem. Some of these case management approaches are described in the several serial killer case studies presented in the following section. (7 ) CASE STUDY I ... RANDALL BRENT WOODFIELD Randall Brent Woodfield became known as the 1-5 Killer in California because he cruised a Northwestern super highway and turned it into a trail of terror and murder. He was active between 1972-1981. Woodfield was a white male born in California to a middle class family and had three sisters. He was considered an all around young man and excelled in sports. In his early years, he grew to resent the dominance of his mother and older sisters. Woodfield felt humiliated when he was disciplined or chastised by women. In junior high school, he began exposing himself to girls in his community. It was gratifying to him to see the frightened look on a women's or girl's face when they saw his genitals. He was caught a number of times by the local police, but Woodfield was sent home because he was a local athlete and an arrest would not look good on his record. Woodfield stated he was always attracted to large breasted girls. Woodfield never was able to establish a lasting relationship with girlfriends. In 1970, Woodfield's relationship with Sharon McNeill carne to an end. It was a matter that he could not deal with and he broke into her apartment and vandalized it, and stole items that he had given her previously. Woodfield was arrested, charged and found not guilty of the crime. In 1972, he was found (8 ) guilty of indecent exposure and received a suspended sentence. According to Ann Rule in her book, The 1-5 Killer, he was recruited by the Green Bay Packers in 1973 and dropped from the roster that same season. The unofficial reason was between ten and twenty incidents of indecent exposure, pulling a knife on victims, and taking their purses. In 1975, he attacked an undercover female police officer and attempted to sexually assault her. He received a ten-year sentence for armed robbery. After a plea bargain, Woodfield was paroled in less than four years. He began robbing stores that had female clerks working in them and he forced his victims to undress, ejaculate him, and watched as he forced them to perform sex acts on themselves. With each incident, there was more force and added violence. His crimes stretched from the 1-5 Freeway Corridor of Redding, California to Bellevue, Washington. During his active years, he was charged with 22 active cases from serial rapes to murder. It was not until law enforcement agencies began to communicate with one another and discuss similar cases in their jurisdictions that Randy Woodfield became a suspect.